CALIFORNIA RESEARCH BUREAUCALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARYStudies in the News

California -- One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago

February 1854 - "On February 13, 1854, the Los Angeles Rangers, were in attendance at the first judicial execution held in Los Angeles. The condemned man was a Mexican named Herrera, who had been convicted of murder. " San Francisco Daily Herald (February 22, 1854) 2

February 14 1854 - "I designated yesterday at 3 P.M. for this execution.... He had been a soldier in Mexico; a martial band of Mexicans accompanied him to the scaffold, at their own request, candles were burnt there last night, and to-day he was buried with martial music and religious rites. He had killed one of his own race, about a woman http://www.webroots.org/library/usahist/pndojbh3.html" Diaries of Judge Hayes - Chapter III

Studies in the News is a very current compilation of items significant to the Legislature and Governor's Office. It is created weekly by the State Library's Research Bureau to supplement the public policy debate in California’s Capitol. To help share the latest information with state policymakers, these reading lists are now being made accessible through the State Library’s website. This week's list of current articles in various public policy areas is presented below.

Service to State Employees:

When available, the URL for the full text of each item is provided.

Items in the State Library collection can be checked out to state officials and staff.

Access to all materials listed will be provided by the State Information Reference Center, either by e-mail to cslsirc@library.ca.gov or by calling 654-0261.

Comparison of the Illinois Commission Report on Capital Punishment with the Capital Punishment System in California. By Robert M. Sanger, Death Penalty Focus. (The Author, Santa Barbara, California) 2003. 94 p.

["A board member of Death Penalty Focus released a report that said California does not have in place most of the 85 reforms that an Illinois commission recommended.... 'California has basically deluded itself into believing that it is progressive, but we don't have the safeguards,' said Robert Sanger, a criminal defense lawyer." Los Angeles Times (January 23, 2003) 1.]

["While younger students can participate in after-school programs, a new study released says the state's at-risk teenagers do not have adequate after-school activities to keep them away from crime. The report says California dedicates enough funding to serve students at just 3 percent of state high schools. Without adequate funding, schools cannot take advantage of their own resources." Sacramento Bee (January 29, 2004) 1.]

["Statewide, California officials reported a 2.3% rise in total crime during the first nine months of last year, but a 2.2% drop in violent crime, consisting of homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.... Homicides in Orange County's largest cities dropped by almost one-third during the first nine months of 2003, but rapes rose slightly, according to the California Department of Justice." Los Angeles Times (January 14, 2004) Online.]

["Although federal grant programs are key in the funding for crime victim assistance, state-level support can play an equal role. This bulletin gives an overview and describes the major state legislative approaches used in recent years to create sources of funding for crime victim assistance.... [It] highlights various circumstances in which relevant laws are applied, emphasizing their successful implementation."]

["The slavery reparations movement was dealt a major blow when a U.S. district court judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking reparations from corporate America for its role in the perpetuation of slavery in the United States.... Watkins' analysis suggests that the federal courts still retain a degree of integrity absent in legislative bodies." The Lighthouse (February 3, 2004) 1.]

["The Massachusetts Supreme Court cleared the way for the nation's first same-sex marriages by ruling that anything less than full, equal marriage rights for gay couples is unconstitutional. The landmark decision comes as California lawmakers get ready to confront similar questions with legislation that would prohibit the state from denying marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.... The ruling affirmed the court's November decision granting seven same-sex couples the right to marry — and extending that privilege to all gay and lesbian couples in Massachusetts. The court gave the Legislature six months to establish a law for same-sex marriage." San Jose Mercury News (February 5, 2004) A1.]

["We determined that fees were not sufficient to fully fund the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) operations. In part, this has resulted because the current fee schedule is based on an outdated fee study that did not include all costs of CIS's operations.... For the 3-year period from fiscal year 2001 through 2003, CIS's reported operating costs exceeded available fees by almost $460 million."]

["Surveys of more than 217,000 sixth- to 12th-graders indicate that race and ethnicity have virtually no effect on how youth respond to the presence of developmental assets in their lives. Black, Hispanic, white and Asian youth share almost the exact same inverse relationship between the number of assets a youth reports and the number of high-risk behaviors he or she engages in. They also share a positive relationship between assets and 'thriving behaviors.'"]

["Big-box retail development -- led by Wal-Mart Supercenters -- will save Bay Area residents money on groceries but also could seriously eat into the region's sales-tax base, erode entry-level wages and worsen snarled traffic, the Bay Area Economic Forum said in a report.... Wal-Mart could save Bay Area grocery shoppers as a whole $382 million to $1.13 billion per year -- roughly 5 to 13 percent of their expected annual spending on groceries -- if the growth forecasts hold true, the report says. On the flip side, the average Bay Area grocery-store employee can expect to lose $21,000 from his or her current annual wage-and-benefits package of $42,552 per year, the report warns." San Francisco Chronicle (February 5, 2004) A1.]

["Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.'s entry into the Southern California grocery business will produce a net increase in jobs, as benefits of its lower prices offset the downside of its lower wages, according to a report. Previous studies ... found an overall negative economic effect from Supercenters. Gregory Freeman, director of policy consulting for the LAEDC, said those studies failed to account for consumer savings on groceries." Los Angeles Times (January 28, 2004) 1A.]

["Americans reported losses of $437 million last year to identity theft and fraud as scam artists made themselves at home on the Internet, according to federal statistics.... Identity theft ... topped the list with 215,000 complaints, up 33% from the previous year." Los Angeles Times (January 23, 2004) A20.]

["Competition Is All: Mr. Kahn assaults the widely held view that deregulation of airlines and telecoms has been a terrible failure -- and the main cause of the financial disasters lately visited on those industries.... Deregulation of the airline industry has been, he says, 'nearly unqualified success, despite the industry's unusual vulnerability to recessions, acts of terrorism and war'.... The benefits to consumers have been estimated in excess of $20 billion a year, mainly in the form of lower fares." The Economist (December 6, 2003) [online].]

[“The Bay Area’s relative productivity position worsened because home prices, already the highest in the nation, soared 14 percent from 2000 to 2002, the period examined by the study. Energy, commuting, health care and insurance costs, to cite several examples, also rose, even during the recession.” San Francisco Chronicle (January 14, 2004) 1.]

The Education Pipeline in the United States, 1970-2000. By Walt Haney and others, National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy, Boston College. (The Board, Boston, Massachusetts) January 2004. 75 p.

["There is a growing bulge of students in the 9th grade, significantly fewer students reaching 10th grade, and major declines in high school graduation rates, especially in some of the nation's largest states. The study analyzes educational statistics ... to identify key transition points through which students progress, or fail to progress from kindergarten through the grades to high school graduation." Public Education Network Newsletter (January 23, 2004) 3.]

["There are profound differences in what's expected of students across the country and how 'proficiency' is defined, so comparable students or schools are scored differently in different states, according to this study. The variation in standards within states, subjects or grade levels can be large enough that the students or schools most 'at risk' may be misidentified." Connect for Kids (January 20, 2004).]

["Fifty years after racially segregated schooling was pronounced unconstitutional, one-race public schools, and even virtually one-race districts, still exist. Despite a growing number of thoroughly integrated schools, many remain overwhelmingly white or minority. And schools with many black and Hispanic children, especially if most of those pupils live in poverty, often come up short on standard measures of educational health."]

["Violent Crime Against Students Drops: Colleges' heavy investment in campus security may have contributed to 40% decline. Of the nation's 7.7 million college students, an average of 526,000 a year were victims of violent crimes, the report said. The vast majority of those crimes -- 492,000 -- were committed off-campus." San Francisco Chronicle (December 8, 2003) A8.]

["Textbook Publishers Blasted for 'Ripping off' Students; Public Interest Group Says the Industry Uses Gimmicks and Tricks to Inflate Prices: Gimmicks include introducing frequent new editions that include only cosmetic changes and 'bundling' needed texts with supplementary extras that are virtually unused.... The report recommended a variety of changes to help students." Oakland Tribune (January 31, 2004).]

["America’s ignorance of the world is now a national liability. Americans in vastly greater numbers must devote a substantive portion of their education to gaining an understanding of other countries, regions, languages, and cultures, through direct personal experience.... College and university presidents must implement strategies to encourage study abroad on a school-wide basis. They must involve the faculty, ease curricular rigidities, counter financial disincentives, and create new study abroad models and diverse study abroad options that recognize the changed demographics of U.S. higher education today and make study abroad accessible to the broadest possible spectrum of students."]

["Costs of Student Loan Consolidation Rising: A report found that the costs of the Education Department's loan consolidation program have increased in recent years and may have eclipsed the savings garnered from fewer defaults. The number of borrowers who have consolidated student loans has nearly doubled in the past three fiscal years, to almost 1 million, while the combined value of the loans consolidated has risen 150% to $31 billion." American Banker (December 3, 2003) 18.]

Military Pay: Army National Guard Soldiers Mobilized to Active Duty Experience Significant Pay Problems. By the U.S. General Accounting Office. GAO-04-413T. (The Office, Washington, DC) January 28, 2004. 34 p.

["According to the report, the existing processes and controls used to pay mobilized Army National Guard personnel are so cumbersome and complex that neither the Army, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, nor most importantly, the soldiers, can be reasonably assured of receiving timely and accurate pay to mobilized soldiers." Capitol Hill Press Releases (January 26, 2004) 1.]

["The reforms passed by the Legislature could slash the average cost of treating workplace injuries at outpatient surgical centers 58%, the Bureau of State Audits said in the first independent evaluation since the workers' comp law went on the books Jan. 1. Prescription drug costs could drop about one-quarter. The audit doesn't include projections on the total savings the law might squeeze out of the $29-billion system.." Los Angeles Times (January 28, 2004) C1.]

["Over the past several years, our work on the electricity sector has resulted in numerous findings, conclusions, observations, and recommendations.... We highlight three themes on electricity and security matters: Electricity markets are developing, but significant challenges remain; oversight of markets and reliability needs more attention; [and] security for critical infrastructure is of growing importance."]

["A new study by an independent economist shows that a new U.S. energy policy could create 3.3 million new jobs in the nation and achieve energy independence in 10 years. The 'New Apollo Project' was announced by a coalition of labor, environmental, civil rights, business and political leaders called the Apollo Alliance, harkening back to President Kennedy's moon program which sparked a major national commitment to the aerospace industry.... The program includes retrofitting existing buildings to improve energy efficiency and incorporate renewable energy." e-News Wire (February 4, 2004) 2.]

["California has the potential to increase its renewable energy production 10-fold, according to a report adopted by the California Energy Commission... The report is required as part of California's new Renewable Portfolio Standard, which required that 20 percent of retail electricity sales be met with renewable resources by 2017." Natomas Journal (January 2004) 25.]

["If greenhouse-gas emissions are not drastically reduced, climate change will soon rival habitat loss in dooming plants and animals to extinction, scientists warned. They estimated that 18 to 35 percent of species will vanish from six broad regions of the globe over the next half-century as a result of global warming that is already under way. If the same holds true across all the world's land areas, 1 million species could die out." San Jose Mercury News (January 8, 2004) A3.]

Review of Contracting Practices at the Los Angeles World Airports. By Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, LLC. Prepared for the Office of the Los Angeles City Controller. (The Office, Los Angeles, California) December 15, 2003. 58 p.

["As criticism mounts about links between campaign contributions and contract awards at City Hall, a majority of the members of the Ethics Commission endorsed a ban on political fund raising by members of the City Commission.... The debate followed a scathing audit by City Controller Laura Chick on the involvement of airport commissioners." Los Angeles Daily News (January 13, 2004) 1.]

["The guide describes steps local agencies can take to adopt or update an ethics code. Recognizing that different agencies will choose to emphasize different ethical values in their codes, the guide offers a 'menu' of possible code provisions as opposed to a one-size-fits-all sample policy. The guide also discusses the pros and cons of value-based, as opposed to rule-based, ethics codes."]

["This paper is concerned with governance and how some new forms of collaborative dialogue, policy making, and action are filling the gaps left as our formal institutions of government are failing to carry out their responsibilities or where no agency has jurisdiction."]

["The Office of Management and Budget has sponsored initiatives to promote expansion of electronic government.... All four of the e-government initiatives (Geospatial One-Stop, Business Gateway, e-Payroll, and Integrated Acquisition Environment) have made progress in meeting the objectives ... but competing priorities have sometimes hindered full collaboration."]

["A well-defined enterprise architecture (EA) is a blueprint for institutional modernization and evolution that consists of models describing how an entity operates, and how it intends to operate in the future.... GAO surveyed federal agencies on their EA programs and compared the results with those of a similar survey conducted in 2001.... Progress toward effective EA management is limited."]

["The Governor's proposed budget for 2004-05 identifies an accumulative General Fund deficit of $16.2 billion. In eliminating the deficit, the Governor relies on the following primary strategies: $3 billion in Economic Recovery Bond revenue proceeds ...; Spending reductions of $5.9 billion (primarily in the areas of health and human services programs, higher education, and a property tax shift from local governments to schools); Proposed 're-basing' of Proposition 98; $1.3 billion in debt service savings resulting from the longer repayment period of the Economic Recovery Bond; $950 million from the proposed suspension of Proposition 42 (Transportation Congestion Improvement Act); $950 million from a 'pension reform' package ...; $1.2 billion in other transfers, fund shifts, loans, consolidations, and cost avoidance."]

["Several proposals have been made to improve the security of DREs [direct recording electronic] and other computer-assisted voting systems. They include: (1) ensuring that accepted security protocols are followed appropriately; (2) improving security standards and certification of voting systems; (3) use of open-source computer code; and (4) improvements in verifiability and transparency."]

[“The cost of health care has continued to rise faster than the economy, forcing Americans to pay more out of their own pockets for more expensive drugs and hospital stays, the federal government reported…. Noting a rapid increase in health care spending over the past two years, the report said that U.S. health costs climbed to $1.6 trillion in 2002, or $5,440 per person.” Sacramento Bee (January 9, 2004) D1.]

["Only half of children with social or emotional problems are identified by their primary care physicians and only a fraction receive appropriate care. Under ABCD II, five states—California, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Utah—will develop models of service delivery and financing that promote healthy mental development of young children under age 5. As described in this report, such preventive care aims to improve children's developmental outcomes and readiness to learn and to prevent the need for more intensive and expensive remedial care at a later age."]

["This guide offers practical recommendations to using recent estimates on the uninsured from the Current Population Survey and the California Health Care Interview Survey. With the variation in the quality of surveys, the data are subject to considerable uncertainty and estimates should be viewed as approximation. When two surveys support each other, analysts can feel most confident in the results."]

["California continues to suffer from a lack of housing that is affordable for even middle-income families. Many renters pay far too large a share of their incomes for rent, and Californians face some of the nation's least affordable homeownership markets, making it difficult for young families to achieve the 'American Dream.' While the poorest households face the most severe housing problems, millions of California's middle-income households also face substantial difficulties in finding shelter they can afford. This report details the struggles of lower- and middle-income families to afford housing and examines the causes of the state’s housing crisis."]

["Sales of new and existing homes will remain strong throughout 2004, but will decrease slightly compared to the record levels of 2003. Job losses in the Sacramento region and the prospect of increasing interest rates will act together to slow somewhat the pace of home sales in the six county region, including Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Yolo, Sutter, and Yuba Counties."]

["California's welfare rolls have dropped by almost 40 percent since the state's welfare-to-work program began in 1998, and about half of the people who have left public assistance said they were employed.... The state's welfare-to-work program ... 'has been less successful moving people into jobs that can support a family,' said Scott Graves of the Budget Project, a group that advocates for poor and middle-income families." Sacramento Bee (January 6, 2004) A3.]

["State and local finances continue to face the most severe crisis in recent times. Despite some signs that the worst is over, children, families and communities are likely to feel the pain from state budget shortfalls for some time in health care, public school funding and public colleges."]

["Nearly one-third of all births now occur to unmarried parents -- creating what have been called 'fragile families.' The term 'fragile families' emphasizes both that these unmarried couples and their children are, in fact, families and that they are at greater risk of poverty and of family dissolution than married families. This policy brief summarizes selected findings from two [earlier] studies." CLASP website (January 13, 2004) online.]

["The 1997 passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act offered states financial bonuses for each year they increased their adoption rates. Five years later, 33 states and the District of Columbia have doubled the number of children adopted from the states' foster care systems. The center analyzes each state's performance under the Act's incentive program." Youth Today (December/January 2004) 30.]

["Since 1992, 24 states have implemented some type of a family cap policy, usually to discourage welfare recipients from giving birth to children while receiving cash assistance.... This policy brief explains what family cap policies are, reviews some of the research on their effectiveness, explains how many families are affected by them, describes challenges that have been mounted against these policies, and recommends that states with family caps consider repealing these mistaken and potentially harmful policies." CLASP Mailing (December 19, 2003) 1.]

["States administer the child welfare services that protect abused and neglected children -- but they could use more help from the federal government, according to the General Accounting Office. A new report examines Title IV-B of the Social Security Act -- a relatively small piece of the overall child welfare pie that funds a variety of services to protect children -- and finds that the federal government could provide more in-depth oversight to help states address challenges and do a better job. Chief among challenges state face are: hiring, training, and retaining workforces; completing effective computer systems; ensuring that data is accurate and timely; and accurately assessing needs and tailoring services to best fit the needs." Connect for Kids Weekly (February 2, 2004) 1.]

["The U.S. Senate is considering legislation that would completely federalize insurance regulation and eliminate the state system.... NCSL and insurance commissioners believe that the compact is the best way to preserve state insurance regulation while raising consumer protections, improving the quality of product review, and providing insurance companies the regulatory efficiency that they need to compete in the modern financial services marketplace."]

Highly Affected, Rarely Considered: Report on the Impacts of Globalisation on Young People. Edited by James Arvanitakis, International Youth Parliament Commission. (The Commission, Sydney, Australia) 2003. 169 p.

["This report addresses 11 issues where, according to the Commission, the process of economic globalization has most significantly affected young people. Issues include access to education, trafficking of women, violence and water security." Youth Today (December/January 2004) 31.]

["Although opinions differ over which distractions cause the most crashes, one activity has drawn the bulk of the attention from lawmakers.... Since 1999, every state has considered legislation related to driver use of wireless phones." Includes: "State Action;" "Federal Action;" "Local Action;" "International Action;" "Enforcement and Effectiveness;" "Driver Education;" and "Legal Liability."]

["Federal transportation policy is essentially an unfair competition between highways and transit. Despite a number of reforms in the past decade, federal rules remain stacked against transit, and funding highway projects is far easier. This brief compares how new transit and highway programs are treated differently by federal legislation and policy and how those differences lead to an unlevel playing field, distorting good local planning, management, and decision making."]

["FHWA's [Federal Highway Administration] database allows for comparisons of individual states costs over time but does not allow for comparisons between states. In addition, FHWA has concerns about the quality of the data....In order to determine whether continued federal and state efforts to provide and analyze state construction cost data are warranted, we recommend that the Secretary of Transportation direct the Federal Highway Administrator to determine whether the bid price data collected by FHWA is useful to transportation stakeholders."]

["This study examined the association between engagement in daily challenges and school misconduct in a sample of adolescents... The report indicates that opportunity, engagement, and success in challenges are associated with reduced misconduct, particularly among adolescents who face substantial adversities at home or in school." Children of Prisoners.cwla.org (December 5, 2003) 1.]

["Children who are victims of or observe violence exhibit more behavior problems than other children according to this study.... Those children who were direct victims of violence had the most behavioral problems, followed by those who were direct witnesses. Eighteen percent of the victims and 12 percent of the witnesses reached the clinical cut off point for psychological maladjustment, while none of the children exposed to violence via reports of others or through the media scored poorly enough to meet the same cut off standard." CDF Violence Prevention Listserv (January 16, 2003).]

["A recent study by the UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion found that bullying is a very common and disturbing problem in schools. One in five 12-year-olds in the study committed acts of bullying, were victims of bullies, or both.... Children who act as bullies and are also victims of bullies have characteristics of a very high-risk group for problems in school."]

The Hype about Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate. By Joseph J. Romm. (Island Press, Covelo, California) April 2004. 240 p.

["Joseph Romm, who oversaw energy efficiency programs in the U.S. Department of Energy during the Clinton administration, said he counts himself a proponent of new technologies. But Romm ... said the fuel (hydrogen) will not be used to run passenger cars in significant numbers before 2030. He said the most viable step away from gasoline-powered cars -- hybrid vehicles ... is already here." Los Angeles Times (January 20, 2004) online. NOTE: The Hype About Hydrogen ... will be available for 3-day loan.]

["The cost of obesity is enormous in California and around the country, a new study says. Taxpayers nationwide spent $75 billion in Medicaid and Medicare funds treating obesity-related illnesses in 2003, according to a federal report.... The amount of Medicare and Medicaid money spent on obesity-related illnesses is slightly less than that spent on smoking related illnesses. Smokers account for 6% to 8% of such medical expenditures and obesity about 6%; injuries account for 10% of that spending, he said." Los Angeles Times (January 22,2004) A1.]